"Verizon is not going to Canada." The words come from CEO Lowell McAdam, who dismissed speculation about the company’s potential incursion into the country as "way overblown" in a phone interview with Bloomberg. It looks like its $130 billion buy-out of Vodafone’s share of Verizon Wireless has sapped some of the company's apetite for expansion.

Earlier this summer, rumors that Verizon was planning to move north of the border set off a public relations offensive from Canada’s so-called Big Three carriers, who made their case in an open letter and nationwide TV ad campaign. Verizon’s potential entry into the market could have put some much-needed pressure on Bell, Rogers, and Telus in a country where a typical 1GB data plan runs $70 a month, although the established players were understandably heated about a massive new competitor entering the market. Even more so when said competitor would have been able to buy up failed wireless startups on the cheap while the established players are prohibited from doing the same thing. But the biggest implication of Verizon’s decision to give up on Canada? There's now one less potential bidder in January's critical 700MHz spectrum auction.